The following disclosure relates to an ink-jet recording apparatus configured to eject ink droplets from nozzles to perform image recording on a sheet.
There is known an ink-jet recording apparatus configured to eject ink droplets to record an image on a sheet. This image recording is performed by ejecting the ink droplets onto the sheet from nozzles formed in a nozzle surface of a recording head.
In this ink-jet recording apparatus, when the ink droplets are ejected on the sheet from the nozzles, the ink is absorbed in the sheet, so that the sheet may be deformed by water of the ink such that a recording surface of the sheet swells upward. In case where the sheet is deformed in this manner, the recording surface of the sheet may be soiled by contacting the nozzle surface.
In order to solve the problem in which a leading edge portion of the swollen sheet is soiled by contacting the nozzle surface, for example, the ink-jet recording apparatus includes a guide member disposed downstream, in a sheet conveying direction, of a support member opposed to the recording head to support the sheet. The guide member is inclined from a position below the support member so as to be higher at a downstream portion of the guide member in the sheet conveying direction than at an upstream portion of the guide member in the sheet conveying direction. The guide member guides the sheet to a sheet-output roller pair after image recording on the recording surface of the sheet. With this construction, the leading edge portion of the sheet swollen upward by the absorbed ink is hung down by its own weight toward a guide surface of the guide member, thereby preventing the sheet swollen upward from contacting the nozzle surface of the recording head.
Also, there is known another ink-jet recording apparatus including: a first sheet-output roller pair disposed, in the conveying direction, downstream of a support member for supporting a sheet; and a second sheet-output roller pair disposed downstream of the first sheet-output roller pair in the conveying direction. These two sheet-output roller pairs discharge the sheet.